


The One You Saved

by RobinWritesChirps



Category: The Trail to Oregon! - Team Starkid
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Character Study, F/M, Family Feels, Family Issues, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-16
Updated: 2020-03-16
Packaged: 2021-02-28 22:02:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,133
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23174374
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RobinWritesChirps/pseuds/RobinWritesChirps
Summary: Jack Bauer had held her close in his arms, promised her wonders and blessings, laid her down gently and passionately to shower her with attentions and foolishly she had listened and thought she was in love. What she was now was bloating and sweating and always at the outhouse for one end of her body or the other. She was starting to think she hated him a little bit.Slippery When Wet’s thoughts during her first pregnancy.
Relationships: Jack Bauer Dikrats/Slippery When Wet Dikrats
Comments: 24
Kudos: 47





	The One You Saved

Slippery When Wet’s life turned to hell the moment Jack Bauer put a baby in her belly.

Her body betrayed her first, before the curse had even started. Of course she had indulged, the very first mistake of listening to her urges, daily rolls in the hay with the young Dikrats who had spoken too many kind words to her, deceiving her with his soft hair, strong hands, charming smile. He had held her close in his arms, promised her wonders and blessings, laid her down gently and passionately to shower her with attentions and foolishly she had listened and thought she was in love. What she was now was bloating and sweating and always at the outhouse for one end of her body or the other. She was starting to think she hated him a little bit.

There was a wedding. As soon as she confessed the drastic consequences of their mishap, before her belly had even started to swell with a bump, Jack Bauer had sunk to his knees and begged her to marry him. She didn’t think she wanted him for a husband, but what choice did she have? A girl couldn’t just run away and raise a child without a husband without cursing herself and her baby to ridicule and taunting. Her father frowned and grumbled the entire ceremony − which was as short as they could make it anyways. The vows were exchanged nonetheless, promising to love and cherish one another now and forever. Slippery When Wet wasn’t so sure about the now. She was even less confident on the forever.

Jack Bauer found them a house, barely more than a roof over their heads, but he called it a home and Slippery When Wet could only keep it for him when he was out at work all day in the fields. She had never been one to wallow in her emotions but the natural retribution for her mistake of falling for him seemed to be that her sorrow now was as strong as the infatuation then. She was miserable.

She felt lonely on her own at home for many long hours at a time. Pregnancy had left her bedridden half of the time, frail and petite as she was, and so very seventeen. Some days (perhaps even most days), Jack managed to hop back home for lunch to keep her company, but the afternoons were even more lonely when he did. The bigger her belly got, the more desperate she felt for something to do, anything at all. She started to make the wrong choices.

It surprised her how much she managed to hide from him. Her husband, she soon realized, had no care in the world what she sneaked into the house, or perhaps was too stupid to notice. All the liquor the wages could buy, some harder stuff too. It took her mind off of the growing monster in her belly, the one who had chained her to the life of a housewife without her ever asking for it. Gambling when she could stand and leave the house, making herself a reputation at the shady saloon of the one who hardly ever lost, nothing but her reputation anyways. Maybe forcing herself to walk around despite the exhaustion and the pains would give the baby a wave goodbye. Maybe the drugs would. Yet weeks passed and Slippery When Wet lost herself, yet never lost the baby. She started to lose a few games, though. Debt started to pile on.

The first time she felt the baby kick, she nearly burst into tears. She was no judge of her own emotions, not for a long time, and she didn’t know if relief or terror was chief in her mind. The baby lived, that was sure, no matter her opinion on it. It lived and kicked and pranced around and made its existence well known, impossible for her to ignore. Perhaps she admired that after all. She was tough, but the baby was tougher. That night, Jack Bauer held her close, both hands on her belly to better feel his kicking child, and Slippery When Wet wondered what kind of father he would be. She realized it was the first time she had asked herself all this time. She realized that she feared what kind of mother she would be most of all.

"I don’t want this baby," she told the midwives when her time came.

She was feverish and high on opiates already but impossible to soothe. They kissed her temple and told her that she would love her little baby more than anything in the world when she would see its little face. Slippery When Wet shrieked in sharp pain and wondered if she would even make it to that.

"Breathe in and out, darlin’," they told her, "And in just a lil bit you’ll both be just fine, I swear."

Labor was the worst day of her life. Dawn to dusk of wailing, long and painful hours, a bloody and shitty show in all possible ways, and she thought she might die a thousand times, cut up and sore, but with a pop, the little invader was pulled out of her in a gush of blood and gore. They placed it on her chest and all woes were gone in the snap of fingers, the sluggish blink of a pair of minuscule blue eyes.

"It’s a girl," the midwife said. "Your little baby girl."

She was a dirty little creature. Covered in white-ish goo and thick gloops of blood, she was a squirming tiny frog of a person. She was also the most beautiful thing Slippery When Wet had ever seen in her life.

"Oh my god..."

The midwives shook their heads at her with fondness and one of them muttered something about foolish first timers never listening to their elders, but she was long past rebellion to defend herself. Whatever they said, whatever they did, what anyone else might ever tell her again, all of that meant nothing and zilch when the baby had opened the gates of a new world for her. If only the exit had been just a tad less painful.

"Oh my god," she whimpered and hugged the baby tight to her chest. The girl gave a little squeal but Slippery When Wet shushed her with kisses and she was soothed.

"She needs a bath," one of the midwives said firmly, holding up her arms to have the baby passed to her. "Wash off all that goo, make her all nice an’ pretty for ya, sugar."

She relented. Not even a minute of motherhood, yet her arms felt empty as the desert without her baby girl in them. Back in her arms all fresh and proper, the white swaddle draped around her clashing with puffy red cheeks, the girl lit up a warmth inside of her mama’s heart that she couldn’t understand or tame.

"Ain’t she the prettiest thing you ever seen in your life?" She asked them.

She couldn’t stop staring at the baby, not for one second, but she heard the snickers.

"I seen hundreds of babies in my life, hun," one of them said and kissed the top of her head. "All of them are beauties in the eye of their mama."

"But this one really is," she insisted. "Ain’t she?"

"’Course," was the reply though the tone was teasing. "She’s gorgeous."

Slippery When Wet had never thought herself the creative type, never one to imagine what she could simply be out and doing, but as the midwives left her there to enjoy her baby on her own, she found herself swarming with all sorts of ideas and thoughts.

No more drinking and smoking, she knew that for sure. She’d have to drain out the bottles into the dirt of their backyard or something, give them away. She had gotten so used to the haze of substance but she now wanted her mind clear and bright for her little baby girl. She wanted her sharp wits, her brains taken by nothing else but the love that was pouring out of her from all parts. No more gambling, and they’d have to find something to do about the debt. The last thing on her mind now was money, for she knew that every last penny she could hold onto would be going to her baby, to giving her all the comfort and pleasures she could need. Still, it would have to be handled and settled and she would have to confess her misdeeds to Jack Bauer. When they went home, surely, she would tell him and they would start planning out a future worthy of the angel in her arms.

"Knock knock…" Jack Bauer muttered, slowly pushing the door open. "Room for one more?"

She huffed, but smiled and nodded at him quietly. He was all awe and tenderness when he joined her on the bed, sitting next to her at the headboard.

"So here she is…"

The baby was passed delicately from one pair of arms to another and Jack Bauer’s eyes had never been filled with such wonder, with such tenderness. His mouth gaped open as he stared down at the little baby. _His_ daughter, she reminded herself. She had carried the girl the best part of the past year, made acquaintance with her kicking little legs long before they ever saw the light of day, but the child was as much his as hers. With hesitant fingers, he traced the shape of her little head, touching damp hair, the line of her tiny nose, baby lips. He huffed in contentment and sat more comfortably, the baby between them so that Slippery When Wet might still look at her. A grin from her husband and she felt her heart twist with something foreign, but soon again he could only gaze down in awe at the new life they had created.

"She’s something kinda… kinda something, isn’t she?"

She nodded. She wanted to say more, anything to let Jack Bauer know of the new sentimentality she had discovered within, but he was cooing at the baby so preciously she never found the words. Tucking her head against his shoulder comfortably, she closed her eyes. The exhaustion was starting to catch up on her. She wondered if she would manage a snooze but the thought had barely crossed her mind that the baby started to wail and her eyes snapped open.

"What do I… what do I do?" Jack Bauer mumbled, glancing between her and their daughter with wide confused eyes.

Slippery When Wet shook her head at his ineptitude, though she noted that there was some warmth towards him in her that had not always been there. She wondered what that would mean. Gently, she picked the baby from his arms and tugged up her shirt to let her nurse at her breast.

"Oh…"

At once, the girl was soothed and for a moment the family sat there in the near silence of the little baby having the first meal of her short life. Jack Bauer kissed Slippery When Wet’s temple and she smiled. She was filled with a peace she had never known, her mind and heart soothed to the utmost quiet. Her very own baby girl had a big mouth on her, taking up half her face as she seemed to attempt to devour her mother whole, so fiercely she fed. The softest hair Slippery When Wet had ever touched in her life, skin like the ripest of peaches plucked in the afternoon sun.

"Her name’s Mouthface," she muttered.

It wasn’t so much a question as a decision clearly stated, but Jack Bauer nodded his approval all the same. His arm wrapped snug around her shoulders to keep her close and better look at their little Mouthface.

"Sounds great to me," he said. "Mouthface Dikrats. That’s some name, huh?"

Mouthface cooed a little baby noise for approval. Slippery When Wet huffed in breathless, exhausted mirth.

"She’s gon’ be real special, this one," she said. "My whole world now."

"And mine," he breathed out.

He reached to tickle gentle fingers against the baby’s little head. Slippery When Wet looked up at him and smiled when their eyes met. He leaned with some hesitation and kissed her on the lips. So much affection, all the tenderness she thought she had forgotten but her husband holding her close to remind her.

"We’re gonna be real happy, now."

She nodded softly. She needed a nap, a bath, she needed a change of clothes, but in this moment, his arm around her and the baby nursing at her bosom were just enough. A life of farming with a child and him for a husband didn’t seem all that bad after all.


End file.
